When The New Day was launched by Trinity Mirror back in February although there were raised eyebrows at a new press title, this was also lauded by the wider media community as a ballsy move and a breath of fresh air in the press market, which is un arguably for the most part displaying a gradual decline in readership.
This was echoed at the time by Jane Martinson, the head of media at the Guardian, that although “this is a terrible time to launch a newspaper…We have to welcome a brave and optimistic attempt to do something in this market.”
With a lofty target of achieving a steady national circulation of 200,000, The New Day struggled with this from the very beginning, with sales sitting closer to the 40k mark.
As a result of the lack of short term success, as of 6th May, Trinity Mirror have brought the curtain down on the title and so the sun has set on The New Day, if more prematurely than anyone would have expected. Is this jumping too early? This could be argued, but in times of diminishing margins stomaching a loss indefinitely is very difficult for shareholders to take, the sale of UTV Ireland a year after its launch is testament to this.
But where one’s circle of life ends, another begins, and so last week has seen the launch of another new press title, at least in Northern Ireland anyway…….The i
This stripped down version of the Independent (although previously available in NI before being withdrawn in 2013), has been relaunched last week and is officially on sale today – Friday 13th! Hopefully this is not an ominous sign.
Although there are some similarities with The New Day in terms of their approach to concise reporting on news stories and events, they will surely benefit from the public being at least a little familiar with the brand, as opposed to The New Day which was a new and unfamiliar brand and bravely, but ultimately misguidedly, attempted to create a niche feature led female focused readership within a commuter news environment. It is also tapping into its current wider UK success, a story also shared with the Evening Standard in London.
We can only hope for the greater good of the press industry, and indeed readers in Northern Ireland that The i enjoys a better lifespan. We shall of course be watching this space closely to see how it all unfolds…..
